More 4's latest Friday foreign drama takes up where 'Spin' left off. Paris is replaced by Stockholm but the skullduggery, betrayal and downright dirty politics are all present and (in)correct. Disgraced former Chief of Staff Elin (Louise Peterhoff) is waitressing when she is re-recruited. The previous occupant has supposedly gone on sick leave but we know that Sarah was tailed and that her abandoned car is in the woods. She was last seen pleading with Annika, a middle-aged mum who supports the far right. When Annika is threatened, things start to look conspiratorial. And intriguing. And generally like a timely and engrossing drama. Hurrah.
One of the current 'Walter Presents' picks of foreign-language television on the 4 family, this six-parter is pretty timely in the wake of the 2015 attacks in Paris. The President is assassinated but no-one claims responsibility. As always in a power vacuum, various ministers jostle for power, by fair means or foul, and one of their main assets is the modern spin doctor. At the emotional heart are a pair of these sharp operators, Simon Kapita (Bruno Walkowitz) and Ludovic Desmeuze (Gregory Fitoussi), old friends but divided by their current jobs supporting opposing candidates for power. Fitoussi will be familiar to British viewers from 'Spiral', 'Mr. Selfridge' and 'Odyssey'.
This is the sort of thing that can be slick to the point of superficiality, and it keeps up the pace with various skullduggeries and deals going on, but Walkowitz makes a sympathetically human agent for truth in the treacherous world around him. This looks set to tackle sexism and racism, not to mention the deep unpleasantness at the heart of the democratic establishment, head on.
Coalition was Channel 4's dramatisation of the formation of the Conservative / Lib Dem coalition government in 2010. Starting with the first ever TV debate, it took viewers up to the point of the foundation of the government, and Cameron & Clegg's first joint press conference.
While it started well - the debate worked, I think - it soon drifted off into less comfortable territory. The biggest problem was that the cast of characters was very big. Normally with re-creations you have a few actors playing real figures, but in this almost all characters were current, living politicians.
So while you could take the 3 party leaders ('Cameron' looked very convincing for example), as more and more people started to appear it became a very distracting case of 'who is that meant to be?'. I spent a few minutes wondering whether Alex Avery has shaved the top of his head to play William Hague (Google images suggests he had), and also to wonder where I'd seen 'Ed Balls' before (it was, of course Nicholas Burns, aka Nathan Barley). It was a serious drama, but a few knowing gags like one about Chris Huhne's marital problems again broke the suspension of disbelief.
A few interesting points came out of the drama. I'd forgotten how rude Gordon Brown could be, for example, but overall I felt that it would have been done far better as either a documentary, with talking heads, or a Comic Strip style take on the story, complete with action sequences, and over the top performances. (They could have called it 'Inside Number 10')
However, like some of the voters, the programme makers chose to go a third way, and produce something that didn't really work very well, although you could see what the original intention was. A bit like the coalition, in fact...
